In RI, Labor secretary points to signs of recovery

EXETER, R.I.—U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Tuesday the nation remains in a “very deep recession” but that the financial meltdown seems to be stabilizing and there are positive signs for recovery.

Solis told reporters in Rhode Island - where the July unemployment rate of 12.7 percent was second highest in the nation behind Michigan - that the rate of job loss is slowing. Employers shed 216,000 jobs in August, an improvement of the roughly 700,000 jobs lost in January.

But, she added, “That’s not good enough. The president and I say it’s not acceptable, and it’s not.“

Solis and Sen. Jack Reed and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, both Democrats, joined students at the Exeter Job Corps Academy in watching President Barack Obama’s nationally televised back-to-school address. Solis, who a day earlier joined Obama in Ohio, said green jobs, information technology and health care were all fields ripe for growth.

Rhode Island, hit hard by massive declines in the manufacturing sector and a credit crisis that has squeezed small businesses, has for months had one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Roughly 72,900 residents are now looking for work.

Though Michigan’s 15 percent unemployment rate is generally attributed to the faltering American auto industry, Reed said diverse factors - including the deteriorating housing market and a downturn in hospitality and tourism - were to blame in Rhode Island. He said spending in the defense sector was helping cushion the losses.

“It’s not one thing like in Michigan, where you have a dominant industry,“ Reed said. “It’s the accumulation of other factors.“

In his speech, Obama encouraged students to stay in school, study hard and find subjects they enjoy.

The Exeter Job Corps Academy provides free education and job training in manufacturing, construction and other fields. It serves about 200 people, from ages 16 to 24.

Conservative critics had charged last week that Obama was overstepping his bounds by giving a national address on education, but Tatyana Santos, 19, a student at the academy, said she found the speech moving and inspirational.

“Everything that he said, it was true. I want to be better,“ Santos said. “I’ve had some setbacks, but you’ve got to learn from it and don’t let it define you.“